Model answer, end of year 10 Media Studies exam

SECTION A

1. Explain two ways the characters and/or the events in the extract fit the action/adventure genre. Use examples from the extract. (10 marks)

Events:

There are explosions and gunshots – these are a convention of the genre because they create a sense of excitement and danger. When guns start firing and explosions start going off, this means that the action has either started or is about to start. In the extract, a terrorist fires a gun into the car from a rooftop and causes it to explode, which, in turn, leads to people running and screaming, another convention of the action adventure genre. There is not actually a lot of action in the scene, but it is tense and you get the sense that it is building up to something, especially at the end when Sergeant James discovers the bomb and drops his crow bar. You get the sense that there is a race against time, as they have to diffuse the bomb before it explodes.

Another convention of action adventure movies is that the hero is on some kind of mission or quest and that is the case here – the mission is to diffuse the bomb and he also have to do it as part of a team, with Sanborn on the roof looking out for danger while Sergeant James does the diffusing.

The location also fits the genre because it is far away from home for the heroes, and so they are out of their comfort zones. This is something we see in a lot of action adventure films, for example James Bond movies, where he travels to exotic locations to fight the villains and has to contend with unfamiliar surroundings and people.

Characters:

Another convention of the action adventure genre is that the characters are split into heroes and villains, and this is the case here, although we can’t really see the villains as they are hidden. The heroes are American male soldiers, which is very common in action adventure movies. The way they behave, i.e. by holding their guns up, looking around nervously and sometimes shouting, has been seen many times before in military action movies such as Green Zone, the Rambo series and Saving Private Ryan.

2. Using examples from the extract, explain how each of the following is used to create effects that fit the action adventure genre: (20 marks)

a.            Soundtrack

b.            Editing

c.            Mise-en-scène

d.            Camerawork

Soundtrack

The non-diegetic sound in this extract is slightly unusual because it is not exactly music, but it is not diegetic either because it is not the kind of the sound that the characters can here. It is a kind of noise which gets louder as the tension builds and helps create the sense that something bad is going to happen. It sounds kind of Middle Eastern, and so reflects the setting of the extract. There are lots of diegetic sounds too, including the sound of people screaming to convey a sense of panic, sirens going off in the background to highlight the danger, the sound of gunshots and, at the end of the scene when Sergeant James discovers the bomb, the loud clunk of the crow bar hitting the ground to emphasise the fact that he is shocked at what he has found.

Editing

The cutting is generally quite slow by the conventions of the action adventure genre, but that is because this is a scene which builds up to the action, rather than an action scene itself. There are some interesting cuts though: one across time where Sergeant James is talking to a local police officer in his army uniform, then suddenly he is walking towards the car in his bomb disposal outfit. It is a very simple cut without no cross-fade, so it is not even clear at first that time has passed, but this is deliberate as the director wants to take us out of our comfort zone. There is also a cut when he is putting out the fire from long to a slightly closer shot, which creates a sense of unease. At the beginning of the scene there is a very obvious cut across time and space from the bathroom to the outdoor location where the car is. The conversation itself cuts between the faces of the soldiers in the mirror as they talk to each other. There is also cutting between shots of small groups of locals being evacuated and long shots of all of them running away, being guided by soldiers. The cutting keeps the scene moving along and is in stark contrast to, say, a typical Stanley Kubrick movie without much cutting to get you to really focus on the characters and what they are saying, rather than what is going on generally.

Mise-en-scene

Everything you see in the extract is exactly what you would expect to see in a Middle Eastern urban location: there is dust on the ground, white buildings and lots of grey and beige. The location contributes to the tension of the extract because there are lots of places for enemies to hide. We also see wire fencing at one point to emphasise the fact that they are in a military zone. The costumes worn by the American actors are very typical military outfits and some of the locals wear robes and headscarves. There are also military vehicles. The bomb disposal costume worn by Sergeant James is very big and heavy and makes it clear that what he is doing is very dangerous. The Mise-en-scene all contributes to the realistic feel of the extract and it seems that there is a lot of authenticity. There is no use of green screen or CGI technology, which, again, makes it feel realistic, rather than fantastical.

Camerawork

There is a lot of handheld camerawork which has the effect of making you feel like you are part of the action, walking around with the characters. There are some establishing shots, like the one of the people evacuating the building and another from the roof of one of the buildings. There is also quite an interesting shot of Sergeant James walking in the bomb disposal suit showing him from below, possibly to establish his authority as the one person who can diffuse the bomb and save everyone. There is also a Point of View shot from his perspective which puts you in his place and tries to give you a sense of what he must be thinking and feeling. The camerawork very much contributes to the sense of authenticity and realism that the director is trying to convey.

3. Discuss the ways in which people are represented in the extract. Use examples from the extract and refer to stereotypes in your answer. (20 marks)

There are lots of stereotypes in this extract: the American soldiers are all stereotypes in that they are male, aged roughly in their twenties and thirties and are quite good looking. In this way they fit the stereotype of the action hero who men want to be and women want to be with, like James Bond. The main character, Sergeant James, also has a very casual attitude towards the very dangerous work he does, as if to emphasise how brave he is – at one point he jokes with a local police officer by telling him he should go and diffuse the bomb. He is the stereotypical maverick who breaks the rules but gets the job done. The Americans are very much the heroes in this clip, as it is they who have to come and diffuse the bomb and save the locals, although when Sanborn calls James a ‘redneck piece of trailer trash’ he is subverting the notion of the more traditional flawless hero like Superman or Captain America. He is also subverting stereotypical notions of race and nationality by taking the superior position in the relationship between him and James, who is white. You could even argue that the remark he makes to James is racist.

Another way in which the representation of the action adventure hero is slightly different from the norm is how the protagonist, Sergeant James, has to save the day, not by killing people, but by diffusing a bomb. Usually action heroes are expected to save lives by killing villains, whereas Sergeant James does not kill anyone in this scene. 

There is also a stereotypical army general who implies to an officer that an injured Iraqi should be shot so as not to endanger the mission, even though he might recover from his injuries. He typifies the older soldier who has seen a lot of things and is hard enough to make those kinds of tough decisions with little regard for the enemy. You could also argue though that general is actually a countertype because killing a defenceless man, even if he is an enemy, is not very heroic. There is also the younger, idealistic soldier who insists the injured officer can recover.

The Iraqis are very stereotypical in that they speak Arabic to each other, wear light, baggy clothing, and, in some cases, head scarves. When the terrorist on the roof fires his gun, we see him from behind and only see the back of his head, which is covered by a head scarf. Again, this is a stereotype because people from the Middle East are so often portrayed as terrorists nowadays because of the events of 9/11.

SECTION B

1. Compare and contrast how and why two programmes were scheduled on different channels. State the day, time and channel on which the two programmes were scheduled. (15 marks)

The two programmes I have chosen for this question are Have I Got News For You and Benidorm.

The first programme was first broadcast on BBC 2 in 1990 and is now one of the longest running programmes on television. It became so popular in the ‘90s that it was switched to BBC1 in 2000, which is a more mainstream channel which attracts bigger audiences, especially on a Friday night when people want to relax in front of the TV after a busy week at work. BBC2 is more of a niche channel which shows documentaries and quirky comedies that do not attract big audiences. HIGNFY currently goes out at 9pm on Friday nights, which is significant because 9pm is the watershed, which means that children are expected to be in bed and the content of all programmes is more adult oriented, either because it is violent or scary, or because it is of a sexual nature.

The content of the BBC is also affected by the fact that, unlike almost every other channel in the world, it is funded entirely by public money which comes in the form of the licence fee, which you used to have to pay only if you owned a television, but you now have to pay if you have an internet connection of any kind because of BBC iPlayer. This is the case even if you never watch BBC shows. Because of this, the BBC has a responsibility to make shows which cater for all tastes and, in the case of factual shows like the news and Have I Got News For You, are politically neutral. This is why, during the run-up to elections, they often make jokes on the show where they make fun of someone from one of the political parties, then say they are obliged to make fun of people from all of the other major parties.

Old episodes of Have I Got News For You are currently repeated on Dave, which is a channel that was set up specifically to target men, which tells us something about the content of HIGNFY, which usually has mostly men on it, even though it’s Friday night BBC1 scheduling means it is supposed to represent both genders equally, and a wide variety of ethnicities and sexual orientations.

Benidorm

This was originally broadcast on ITV, with repeats on ITV 2 and ITV + 1 and has to go out after the watershed because of the sexual nature of a lot of the humour and the swearing. It has more of a working class audience because it is set in a budget holiday location and the fact that it originally went out on Thursday nights suggests that it was expected to attract more of a niche audience than HIGNFY.

Unlike the BBC, ITV is a commercial channel, which means it is paid for through the selling of advertising space. When television first started in America, this had a very obvious effect on the content of programmes, some of which were written specifically to advertise certain products such as laundry detergents and soaps (hence the term ‘soap opera’). These shows went out during the day when housewives were expected to be at home cooking and cleaning. Nowadays, the advertising of products in shows is more subtle, sometimes taking the form of product placement, or through the portrayal of a lifestyle with which certain products are associated. Benidorm, therefore, might inspire people to want to book a package holiday and if they then see an advertisement for, say Thomas Cook, during the break, they are more likely to use that company.

This also means that the producers have to be careful about what the characters say; if some advertising space has been sold during the break to Carling, for example, the characters can’t then make a joke about how Carling is a disgusting beer.

2. Discuss in detail how one programme offers audience pleasures. Give examples from the programme. (15 marks)

There are several audience pleasures offered by Have I Got News For You.

One is that it features celebrity guests who are being themselves, as opposed to playing characters. If you recognise them, there is familiarity because you might have seen, say, Paul Merton doing stand-up comedy. There may also be familiarity with the news stories which are being discussed.

Another pleasure the show offers is that, like all comedies, it is funny and makes you laugh. A lot of the humour comes from political satire, and the panellists have the opportunity to make fun of public figures. The show has quite a broad appeal in terms of the comedy because one of the team captains, Ian Hislop, is quite posh and panellists sometimes make fun of him for the fact that he went to a private boys’ school, whereas the other captain, Paul Merton, is from a working class background and often makes reference to this in his jokes.

Another pleasure people get from watching panel shows is that they can play along at home. HIGNFY is essentially a quiz show, so viewers have the opportunity to try and answer the questions themselves. The audience for HIGNFY is generally people who pay attention to the news, especially politics, so the humour relies on the viewers having some prior knowledge and they would therefore get some pleasure out of correctly answering the questions and feeling like it was worth reading the paper that morning. The show, therefore, would not bring much pleasure to people who are uninformed.

One final pleasure you get from watching panel shows such as HIGNFY is that there is an element of spontaneity because it a lot of what is said is unscripted, and although it is recorded and edited the day before it is broadcast, they do sometimes leave mistakes in for comic effect and this gives it an element of unpredictability which you don’t get with sitcoms.